Power of God

⚜ HOLY HUMOR:

Not so many years ago, in the short reign of Pope John XXIII, a short, round and elderly man, the Church enjoyed one of its funniest holy men.

Here’s a few of my favorite PJ23 stories:

1. In reply to a reporter who asked,
   “How many people work in the Vatican?”,
   He reportedly said: “About half of them.”
2. One day, as he arrived for an outdoor audience, he overheard two elderly women discussing his physique.
   Pope John became pope right after the long papacy of Pope Pius XII, a slender, aristocratic man born to a wealthy family.
   “My God, he is fat!” whispered one woman to her friend. The pope turned on his heels, faced the women with a smile and commented,
   “But, Madam, you must know that the conclave is not exactly a beauty contest!”
3. Visiting a hospital, he asked a boy what he wanted to be when he grew up.
   The boy said either a policeman or a pope.
   “I would go in for the police if I were you,”
   the pope said.
   “Anyone can become a pope, look at me!”
4. “It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about the serious problems afflicting the world and I tell myself, ‘I must talk to the pope about it.’ Then the next day when I wake up I remember that I am the pope.”
5. When a cardinal complained that a rise in Vatican salaries meant a particular usher earned as much as the cardinal, the pope remarked: “That usher has 10 children; I hope the cardinal doesn’t.”
6. When he went to visit a friend at the nearby Hospital of the Holy Spirit in the evening, the nun answering the door said:
   “Holy Father, I’m the mother superior of the Holy Spirit.”
   He replied: “Lucky you! What a job! I’m just the ‘servant of the servants of God.’ “
7. He once wrote:
   “There are three ways to face ruin:
   women, gambling and farming.
   My father chose the most boring one.”
8. When he was cardinal and patriarch of Venice, the future pope was talking with a wealthy city resident and told him,
   “You and I have one thing in common: money. You have a lot and I have nothing at all. The difference is I don’t care about it.”
9. When a journalist asked the then-patriarch of Venice what he would be if he could live his life all over again, the future pope said, “Journalist.” Then he said with a smile, “Now let us see if you have the courage to tell me that, if you could do it all over again, you’d be the patriarch!”
10. A Vatican official told the pope it would be “absolutely impossible” to open the Second Vatican Council by 1963. “Fine, we’ll open it in 1962,” he answered. And he did.